E50m road rehabilitation for Vuvulane town
VUVULANE – After what seemed like an eternity, Vuvulane town will finally be seeing infrastructure development in the not-so-distant future.
This is because the Vuvulane Town Board has set aside E50 million budget for the rehabilitation of the route from the main road up to the SEDCO centre, which is adjacent to the Mhlume Inkhundla Centre. This road covers a distance of eight kilometres.
The town appears busy as the Board has also set aside E10.8 million for the construction of a new civic centre.
The centre will house the Board’s new offices. This construction is already underway.
It must be said that this road has been giving residents especially those using private transport a tough time for over 20 years. It was in a bad condition.
Listed
Vuvulane is listed as one of the official towns in Eswatini but evidently, development in this area has been moving at a snail’s pace over the years.
Despite that a very few development initiatives have been undertaken in this town, the news that the main road will now be fixed to become tar, will no doubt leave a number of residents very happy.
Also expected to receive these news with happiness will be the public transport users who are forced to utilise this route on a daily basis.
Vuvulane Town Board’s Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Philani Dlamini confirmed the road development plans, revealing that this project will only cover urban area boundaries.
He said the project would be done in phases, with the first one expected to commence in the next financial year.
“We actually did design for the entire road about two years ago and this brought the E50 million needed for the project.
However, due to funds constraints, we are unable to undertake this project at once covering the eight kilometres.
Currently, there is a E6 million budget for the project in the next financial year and this will cover about 1km of the road,” Dlamini said.
He admitted that the large part of the road requiring rehabilitation was outside the urban boundaries. Dlamini said they made designs about two years back for the entire road from the main road.
“Estimated cost for this project is close to E50 million for the eight kilometres (8km). Due to budget difficulties, we will only do the part inside the town. We budgeted around E6 million for the first phase of the project, which will start in the next financial year,” Dlamini said.
He said they were still locked in negotiations with the central government for assistance in completing the project.
“Unfortunately, the E6 million will cover a short distance of about a kilometre or even less. For the township roads, government usually allocates us around E3 million yet the objective is to fix the entire main road,” he lamented.
Project
He said their project was more expensive because it was fixing a land road, from the main road at Section 17 looping to the other side where there is the Vuvulane market.
“This is the main road because it has one standard. So, once this road enters the urban boundary, it becomes more expensive because in an urban set-up, it is not advisable to have open drains, which brings added costs,” he said.
Dlamini said the construction of the civic education centre was a big project as it was fully funded by the Vuvulane Town Board.
“We have a contract of E10.8 million and the contractor is currently busy with the block work.
“So, this centre will also be used as offices for the town board.
“We are considering accommodating public services in the centre to assist the residents as they are currently forced to travel distant places like Simunye or Siteki to access national documents,” he said.
The acting CEO said their longterm plan is to have a shopping mall in Vuvulane to attracts people from other areas. He admitted though that such a project needed funds, which are scarce at the moment.
Mhlume Constituency Indvuna Yenkhundla Nhlanhla ‘Bibo’ Shabangu confirmed to have been informed about the rehabilitation of the Vuvulane road.
“We are actually quite excited about the news because this road has been a problem for so many years despite complaints.
“It is good to hear that finally, something will be done to address the situation,” Shabangu said.
He also showered the Vuvulane Town Board with huge praises
for their being pro-active and defying all odds to meet the road challenges facing the Vuvulane community.
“The fixing of the Vuvulane road is actually hard to believe because many had accepted that this would never be fixed. So, when the Town Board conveyed the news that a budget had been set aside to address these challenges, we have every reason to be excited at the prospects,” Shabangu said.
The indvuna pointed out that the objective remains to develop the Vuvulane town to ensure that it is at par with the other towns in the country in terms of development.
“Clearly, we are lagging behind when it comes to development compared to the other towns in the region.
It is time we sit up and take action to change.
Positive
The fixing of this road is one positive step towards fixing that challenge,” Shabangu said.
He said the fixing of the road would make it easier for potential investors to visit Vuvulane and explore business opportunities available.
“Vuvulane is a big area with a lot of business opportunities. Unfortunately, the bad road has always been one of the factors undermining development in our area because business people feel the bad road will chase away customers,” he said.
Shabangu admitted that one of their long-term goals was to see the construction of an upmarket mall that will not only bring businesses to the area but will also open job opportunities for the people.
“The reality is that a number of people here in Vuvulane are not employed and once you have development projects like a shopping mall, as that would open job opportunities for them, from the construction up to the operational phase. Vuvulane is not developing at the pace we want,” he said.